Improvement in printers  type-cases



UNITED STATES THOMAS N. HOOKER, OF NEW- YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN PRINTERS TYPE-CASES.

Speeication forming part of Letters Patent No. 23,500, dated April 5, 1859.

To all whom t may concern.-

Be it known that I, THOMAS N. HOOKER, of New York, county of New York, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Arrangement of Type-Cases for Printers Use; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being made to the annexed drawing, making a part of this specification, which is fully described herein.

My invention consists in a method of so arranging the several-boxes or compartments in a type-case thata person put at case may learn the position of the various letters in much less time than by the ordinary method of arranging the same, and also that the movements of the body and travel of the hand of the compositor may be greatly reduced, resulting in a proportionate saving of time and of fatigue.

For a long period of years the regular tools of the printer for setting type in book, newspaper, and other large offices have been the companion cases technically known as upper case and lower case, the two together containing all of the letters, signs, characters, dac., of a full font of type of one peculiar style of letter, or at least all which are in ordinary use. These letters have been divided between the two cases, the lower case. having the small letters, quadrats, and the signs which are most frequently required, While the upper case has the capitals, small capitals, and the signs, characters, &c., which are not so much used. For some fonts of type, used chieliy in jobbing, a single case has been frequently employed, containing a part ot a full font; but in these the arrangement of the boxes has been entirely unlike that which I have devised.

In my improved method of arranging the boxes the general position relatively to each other of those lower-case letters which are most in use, as the vowels and some of the consonants, is still preserved, while the peculiarity of my invention lies in placing at the side of each of these its corresponding upper` case letter or letters, thereby grouping all the letters of the same general name. Hence the compositor has immediately at hand-those letters which are most used, and the learner at case has only inthe improved case to learn once the position of each sort, since he inds its upper-case sorts located with it.

In the drawing annexed the arrangement of a case for a font of Roman type is shown, and in this it will be seen that each lower-case letter has its corresponding uppercase letter in the boxes immediately adjoining. Thus the a has at its side the capital A and the small capital A, the b has at its side the appropriate capital B and small capital 13, and so on for each of the letters, as shown in the drawing, wherein each of the compartments is marked with a letter or character such as it may properly contain to carry out eiectively the purpose of my improvement. In like manner any other letter of type may be condensed into a single case, as an italic letter, script, &c.,since, as has been shown, the corresponding letters which had heretofore been in the V upper case are now to be put into companion boxes in the single case. It will thus be seen that inasmuch as all the letters of any one character in a font are brought together the learner has but to acquire the positions of one of t-hese to be certain of that of the others, although a far greater advantage arises from the facility with which the compositor works, because he has the boxes or compartments containing the particular letters and characters which are most in use placed so as to average many inches nearer to him than in the old upper and lower case, and apartfrom the twistings of his body the mere travel of his hand, both in setting and distributing, is consequently so many inches less for each of those letters. In accomplishing all this I have made no change in the general arrangement for placing the lower-case alphabet, and with which all printers are familiar; nor, indeed, is any such necessary to carry out fully the beneficial features of my improved arrangement. By thus combining the upper and lower case in one the amount of space required for each compositor to work in is so much reduced that one-third more men may have room in an oice, and this in cities is an item of great importance. So, too, in consequence of the travel of his hand and the motions of his body being less, experience has shown that a compositor can set and distribute a considerably larger number of ems per vacferyforfuhe p'hrposes and Vin.thehz'umer day, andstill be less fatigued at night, than substantially as set forth.

when Working at the old cases. In testimony whereof I have hereunto sub- I claimscribed my name. The herein-described method of arranging THOMAS N. ROOKER. the compartments of a type-case-that is to Vtnessesz.

say, placing at the side of the lower-case J. P. PIRSSON, character its corresponding upper-oase char- S. H. MAYNARD. 

